Tuesday, August 26, 2008

So I was reading back through my frugal bible, The Tightwad Gazette, (see sidebar to get one for yourself, you won’t regret it) and I came across an egg substitute in baking that will save TONS of money. It said you can use 1 heaping tablespoon of soy flour to 1 tablespoon of water to replace an egg in all your baking.

I tried it and it works!

No kidding and no cholesterol.

I used it in muffins, a chocolate cake, pancakes, and bread in my bread machine and you couldn’t even tell the difference.

And the best part is….

I found soy flour in the bulk bins for 99 cents a pound. It took ½ an ounce to make an “egg”. I figured there are 16 ounces in a pound so 99 cents divided by 16 equals 6 cents per ounce. And using only ½ an ounce brought it down to 3 cents per “egg”. That would be like paying 36 cents for a dozen eggs.

Hello!

I’m paying double that at Win-co. So now I’m going to use this method for all my baking and save the fresh eggs for breakfasts.

27 comments:

I've been using 1-2 TBSP of cornstarch to replace an egg when I run out. I don't buy eggs like I used to because they are almost $3/dozen here. I heard applesauce could replace them too. I use applesauce to replace the oil in cakes and cookies with better results. Now if I could only find a healthier replacement for chocolate!!!

You're kidding! I don't go through LOTS of eggs, being just the 2 of us, but if I could use something cheaper that works just as well... I'm all for it!! Thanks for the tip! I shall hunt down some soy flour - and hope it's just as cheap as yours. I doubt it, but I will get an E for effort, at least!!!

Thanks for the tip! I'll definitely have to give it a try (if I can find soy flour around here). I tried an oil substitute I read about somewhere, but with disastrous results and my husband strictly forbade me to try it again. :)

Couldn't agree more Jennifer-- though I figure that if dark chocolate is full of anti-oxidants, I just need to eat twice as much milk chocolate, right? :)

Another great and healthy replacement for egg is ground flax. The proportions are the same as the soy flour. If a recipe calls for 2 eggs I generally replace at least one with the flax. I'm not sure about the finacial breakdown of it though. I'm certain it isn't as great as the soy flour, so I may give that a try!

I used 1/4 cup applesauce for an egg in my baking. I haven't figured out the price comparison yet, but I really should! I have soy flour on hand already, too. Hmmm.... maybe I'll do some baking today! :)

Three cents an egg should only be 36 cents for a dozen, shouldn't it? I've read your paragraph explaining the cost and I'm a little confused, so I could be wrong... Either way, it's tons cheaper than real eggs.

I ahve a question though - do you mix the water and soy flour together and then add to the recipe? And if not, do you add to the wet ingredients or to the dry? I'm thinking when you make cookies and you cream the sugars and butter and then usually add the eggs... would you just dump the soy flour and water into that, or would you add the water to the wet stuff and the soy flour to the other dry stuff? Help!

The only thing i would caution is that the uncooked batter tastes GROSS with the soy flour--but don't be fooled, the finished product does NOT taste gross at all-it is the weird magic of baking. But it totally works and you don't have to worry about spoiled eggs if you don't use them often, etc-just be prepared for the batter to have a bean sprout taste, which is pretty icky with brownies :) (not that I've ever experienced that or anything....)

I just made Apple Pie Muffin's using the soy flour/water egg replacement. I mixed the flour and water together... I'm wondering if that was the right thing to do as it was a pastey blob that didn't mix into the rest of the ingredients very well. Are you supposed to mix it together, or add the water with the wet ingredients, and the flour with the dry ingredients? THe muffins are in the oven now, so we'll see how they turn out :)

Thanks, Gayle. I will do that in future recipes. And the muffins seem to have turned out great! I had one after they cooled a bit, and they are VERY good. Of course this is the first time I've made them, so I wouldn't know what they taste like without soy flour :)

Dang it! I have a thyroid disease and soy isn't good for the thyroid. My daughter refuses to eat egg yolks. She knows what they are : ) We made baked ziti last night and she did NOT want to put the egg in. I doubt if I could substitute applesauce in baked ziti!

Great tip! For my birthday this year, my husband took my girls to an Amish store in Va. where you can buy in bulk, and he let them pick out anything they wanted for me. My oldest daughter picked out soy flour. I'll try this in my banana muffins this weekend! Thanks!